Norwalk man gets 80 years for ex-wife and mother-in-law slayings

John Nickerson

Updated 9:50 pm, Monday, September 16, 2013

STAMFORD -- A three-judge panel sentenced Gilbert "Tony" Orlando to 80 years in prison Monday for shooting his ex-wife and her mother to death at their Norwalk home in June 2010.

Just after the sentencing at state Superior Court in Stamford, Paulette Dickens said she was glad her former brother-in-law got the maximum sentence. She is the sister of Orlando's ex-wife, Enid Dickens-Orlando, 57, and daughter of Rona Knight, 73, who were shot and killed by Orlando.

"We are glad it is over and he got the maximum sentence. He will rot in jail," she said.

After a short trial that ended in early April, judges Gary White, Kenneth Povodator and Robert Genuario found that Orlando, now 60, was experiencing an extreme emotional disturbance at the time of the murders and as a result found him guilty of two counts of first-degree manslaughter with a firearm. The maximum for each manslaughter charge is 40 years.

On June 13, 2010, Orlando went to get some clothes at 61 Couch St., the home he had shared with Dickens for years, he found the locks had been changed. Thirty days earlier, the Orlandos' divorce had been finalized and he was told he had 30 days to get his possessions out of the house.

At 8 a.m. the next morning, he went back to the house, where he got into an argument with Dickens about the locks. He then went to the basement and got a .357 magnum revolver and shot the two women.

During trial, Butler said Orlando had been consumed with paranoia for years after he found out Dickens had stolen his identity to obtain medical insurance for her brother, who was suffering from throat cancer.

Butler said Orlando became more upset when he discovered demands for $3,000 to pay for cancer treatment that he never received, and he believed that his wife was keeping his immigration card.

At the hearing Monday when asked if he had anything to say, Orlando immediately blamed sister-in-law Millicent Dickens for the murders. Using his handcuffed hands to hold up papers to the judges that he brought into court with him in a large manila envelope, Orlando said she helped his former wife steal his identity in order to provide medical insurance for their brother.

Orlando said that if it were not for Millicent Dickens, he would not be in court being sentenced to spend the rest of his life in jail.

Supervisory Assistant State's Attorney James Bernardi immediately seized on the statement to illustrate that Orlando felt no remorse for the killings, and said Orlando "deserves as much time in jail as your honors can find in your hearts to give him."

In his statements to the bench, Bernardi called the murders "heartless, senseless and vengeful."

Orlando's attorney, lead courthouse public defender Barry Butler, told the judges that Orlando just "doesn't get it" and his statements prove he is psychologically impaired.

"It was a fair sentencing and a deserved one," Bernardi said.

In the courtroom hallway, Millicent Dickens said she resented the fact Orlando tried to assign her responsibility for the killings.

"He is just trying to put the blame on me," she said. "I did not know what he was talking about."

Patrick Francis, Paulette Dickens' husband, said Orlando should have apologized, rather than deflecting blame onto Millicent. "He is just a no good person. He is the devil ... He got what he deserved."

Speaking for the panel, Judge White said Orlando's mental state had been taken into account at the time of trial and his murder charges had been reduced to manslaughter.

Before pronouncing sentence, White called Orlando's actions that June morning -- he shot his ex-wife three times and her mother twice -- "brutal and senseless."